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New Science Exhibition Whets Children’s Dinosaur
Appetite!
• Dinosaurs and prehistoric beasts voted as children’s
pet subject.
• Explore-At-Bristol launches new archaeology exhibition, designed
uniquely for children under eight years old.
• Fossils and Funny Bones encourages collaborative family learning to help
build children’s ‘island of expertise’.
A unique science exhibition that encourages early years learning through
imaginative play has been launched in Explore-At-Bristol science centre.
Specially designed for children below eight years old, Fossils and Funny
Bones draws on children’s fascination with dinosaurs to motivate them to
acquire new knowledge and skills, while it provides a collaborative
environment for children to learn with their parents/carers.
In a poll conducted by Explore, 54% of the families and children surveyed
chose dinosaurs and prehistoric beasts as their favourite theme.
According to Lorraine Coghill, Learning Manager, At-Bristol, research
shows that young children can develop relatively sophisticated
understanding of topics that they find interesting and when that
development occurs, they are said to have built an ‘island of expertise’.
“These islands are said to develop through active participation in
learning rather than inactive absorption of information. Parents and
carers play a crucial role in motivating and supporting their children
through this development.” Says Lorraine.
According to Emma Cook, Exhibition Manager, At-Bristol, "We wanted a topic
that would enable us to create an interactive environment encouraging
exploratory and imaginative play, using sight, sound, touch and
questioning language. Dinosaurs and fossil hunting scored highly with both
our younger visitors and the parents.”
“Fossils and Funny Bones hopes to offer the opportunity for parents/carers
to help young dinosaur enthusiasts build their islands of expertise. The
space is designed to actively involve parents/carers in their children’s
learning process throughout, by means of setting challenges and joint
activities.” Emma adds.
Fossils and Funny Bones is split into different colourful themed areas and
includes role-play, physical play, a storytelling space and interactive
investigation activities. Children can venture from an immersive
prehistoric world, complete with its own dinosaur costumes and storybook,
into a cave and then on through a fossil finders lab to a big dig, where
they can dig up and examine the remains of prehistoric creatures.
Accompanying the exhibition is a series of interactive activities
presented by the Explore’s Live Science team members. In ‘Dino Deeds’,
children get to make dinosaur footprints, ammonite art and uncover why
cockroaches are so amazing!
Children will also get to participate in the presenter-led ‘Dino
Unearthed’ show, which will bring them back in time to an era when the
dinosaurs roamed the Earth as they find out fascinating facts about these
popular creatures from the past. ‘Dino Unearthed’ is available on select
dates from October.
Fossils and Funny Bones is being exhibited in Explore-At-Bristol until
June 2008. For more information, visitors may log on to
www.at-bristol.org.uk or call 0845 345 3344.
For press enquiries:
Mavis Choong, At-Bristol
0117 915 7152 / 0796 733 4152 /
mavis.choong@at-bristol.org.uk
Notes to Editors:
1. Fossils and Funny Bones is part of the Let’s Imagine
series that also consists of Jet Set, Go! and In the Jungle. These
travelling exhibitions are designed for children under eight years old, a
market not well catered for in science centres.
2. In conjunction to the exhibition, Explore is also organising special
‘Toddler Time’ sessions on regular Fridays from September. The session
includes special story-telling activity and children below five years old
gets to enter Explore for free with a maximum of two accompanying adults,
who will enter at half price (£4.50). Toddler Time will be held on 28
Sept; 5, 12, 19 Oct; 2, 9, 16, 23, 30 Nov; 7 and 14 Dec 2007, at 2pm - 5pm
(last entry at 4.30pm).
3. Description of the themed areas within the exhibition:
• Prehistoric world: Dress up as a dinosaur and go on the prowl - will
you be a flying ichthyosaur, or a fearsome Tyrannosaurus rex? Stomp,
growl, jump, and flap your wings in the special costumes.
• Around the campfire: ‘Of all the shells I’ve seen on the shore, I’ve
never seen one like that before…!’ Listen to the story of Fossil Bay in
the dedicated story-telling area, or join in using the dinosaur puppets.
• Fossil cave: Be an intrepid explorer and crawl through the dark cave,
complete with embedded fossils. What can you see? How do they feel?
• Dinosaur dig pit: Can you dig to unearth the past? Underneath the
upturned dinosaur ribs, a giant dig pit awaits you. Can you be a
palaeontologist, and use brushes, trowels and earth-moving equipment to
uncover the hidden fossils and skeleton?
• Fossil-hunter’s lab tent: Investigate the bones, teeth and fossils
under the microscope and see how they can be measured and sorted. Then
design your own dinosaur with the fun magnetic jigsaws!
• Fossil trail: Follow the trail and make brass rubbings of all the
different dinosaurs - can you collect them all?
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